Search results

This study aims to address a significant gap in the literature by exploring the individual nature and microfoundation perspective of cultural friction during the integration phase following cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBMAs). It focuses on the role of face, a pivotal facet of interactions within Asian organizations, elucidating its importance in post-M&A integration outcomes.

Using a conceptual approach, this study draws on three bodies of literature, namely, cultural friction, microfoundations and face concerns. It reconsiders cultural friction as a microfounded construct and introduces face concerns as a pivotal element to understanding the challenges faced by managers at the forefront of CBMAs involving Asian companies. The conceptual approach is illustrated with examples for the world of practice.

This research makes two significant contributions to the fields of CBMAs and cultural friction. First, it demonstrates the relevance of the concept of cultural friction at the individual level, shedding light on the complex post-CBMA integration process. Second, this study demonstrates the critical role of face concerns in the sociocultural integration following CBMAs. This is underexplored in extant literature.

The crucial role of face is well known to those working in Asia. Yet academic inquiry remains underdeveloped on this issue for CBMAs. The friction derived from face concerns provides additional insights into the nature of the cultural challenges confronting managers during sociocultural integration and elucidates the micro-mechanisms influencing individuals’ responses to cultural friction. This research responds to calls to examine the human side of M&As uncovering previously neglected issues within intercultural managerial encounters.

Within international human resources management scholarship, the importance of trust for good employee relations is well-recognized. This paper aims to deepen understanding of extant intercultural communication (IC) studies on trust, with practical implications for globalizing organizations, by surfacing particularities of a developed Asia (Japanese) subsidiary in developing Asia (Thailand). It thereby contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on International Partnerships (UN SGD 17) and decent work (UN SDG 8).

The paper draws on first-hand interviews with Thai executives of varying responsibilities at a Japanese manufacturer to understand how IC can lead to trust failure in globalizing organizations. It follows a subjectivist, social constructivist epistemology to deepen understanding.

The findings break ground toward an innovative understanding of how Thai executives’ expectations might be betrayed, by surfacing a novel conceptualization of trust failure.

Research is limited to the case examined and the limitation is recognized within the paper. This paper offers an important theoretical refinement – a novel understanding and contribution to how trust might falter.

The findings have important practical implications for international organizations to be wary of power (and especially inequalities), insecurity and the resultant need for empathetic interpersonal relations in Thailand. Similar insights could be potentially relevant in other developed–developing Asia dyadic contexts as well because of the broad-based design of the current case study. Recommendations for staff selection are offered.

The study directly relates to global society’s sustainability objectives, especially decent work that targets a safe working environment for all.

The paper offers in-depth original insights into individual business executives’ values for trust creation in intercultural international organizations. It addresses the paucity of lived experience accounts of trust “failures” in Developed-Developing Asia contexts, valuable to realizing UN SDG 17 that pertains to international partnerships.

The purpose of this briefing, which is Part II of a two-part series, is to address the challenges faced by real estate professionals in negotiations, advocating a shift from traditional win-lose strategies to a value win-win approach and providing a path for this transition. It highlights the importance of continuous negotiation learning and adaptation in an evolving industry, emphasising the need for a collaborative, ethical and interest-based negotiation strategy to achieve long-term success.

The briefing adopts a theoretical and practical approach, combining insights from negotiation theory with real-world applications in the real estate context. It introduces the seven elements framework as a foundation for value win-win negotiations, providing a structured method for real estate professionals to enhance their negotiation skills and outcomes.

The briefing identifies a historical preference for win-lose negotiation strategies in the real estate industry, driven by power dynamics and short-term gains. It highlights the limitations of this approach in a changing industry landscape and presents value win-win negotiation as a more effective alternative that focuses on mutual gains, ethical practices and long-term relationships. It differentiates value win-win from win-lose or win-win naïve strategies and provides value win-win advice to negotiate when faced with these other two strategies.

Real estate professionals are encouraged to embrace the value win-win approach by shifting their mind-set, building strong relationships and communication channels, focusing on interests rather than positions, generating mutual-gain options, persuading based on legitimacy and finally making the best possible decision to either commit or walk away to their alternatives. The briefing provides practical strategies and best practices for implementing this approach, including preparation, option generation and commitment to mutually beneficial outcomes.

The briefing contributes to the negotiation literature by offering a comprehensive and practical guide for real estate professionals to navigate complex negotiations. It presents a novel application of the seven elements framework in the real estate context, emphasising the importance of a value-driven, collaborative approach in achieving superior negotiation outcomes on average than other common negotiation strategies.

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cross-border M&A advisory business in Japan.

Using the grounded theory approach and trust embedded in network theory, the authors conducted interviews with 12 Japanese senior M&A advisors from 8 different advisory firms, categorizing the results into three general themes.

The first theme comprises deep insights contributing to a “decrease in M&A deals” during the COVID-19 crisis as not many deals could be advised while several were canceled. The second theme is “time delays,” with ongoing deals taking more time to be completed. The third gen-eral theme concerns the “new normal” after the COVID-19 era, as M&A advisors have learned to cope with their challenges and are subsequently more efficient, especially time-wise, in dealing with clients.

The research was based on qualitative data gathered from only 12 interviewees from 8 different consultancies who were Japanese senior M&A advisors.

The practical implications of this research go beyond the findings of M&A studies conducted during and soon after the COVID-19 pandemic. Consulting firms commonly report on the COVID-19 impact on M&A markets or client firms but are silent about their own hardships in establishing trustful relationships with clients during the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, we turn the spotlight on the consulting firms themselves to understand their challenges.

The originality of this research goes beyond previous studies on the economic impact of firms; the authors lay out the foundation for the hardship of establishing trustful relationships between M&A advisors and their clients during the COVID-19 crisis. The three general themes elucidated the impact of the pandemic, highlighting the challenges confronting the Japanese M&A advisory business. These themes thus provide a more nuanced understanding of the COVID-19 impact.

While the potential for digital innovation (DI) to transform organizational practices is widely acknowledged in the information systems (IS) literature, there is very limited understanding on the socio-political nature of institutional interactions that determine DI and affect organizational practices in social cash organizations. Drawing on the neo-institutionalist vision, the purpose of the study is to examine the unique set of institutional exchanges that influence the transition to digital social cash payments that give rise to new institutional arrangements in social cash organizations.

The paper draws on an in-depth case study of a government social cash organization in Pakistan. Qualitative data were collected using 30 semi-structured interviews from key organizational members and stakeholders.

The results suggest that DI is determined by the novel intersections between the coercive (techno-economic, regulatory), normative (socio-organizational), mimetic (international) and covert power (political) forces. Hence, DI is not a technologically deterministic output, but rather a complex socio-political process enacted through dialogue, negotiation and conflict between institutional actors. Technology is socially embedded through the process of institutionalization that is coupled by the deinstitutionalization of established organizational practices for progressive transformation.

The research has implications for government social cash organizations especially in the Global South. Empirically, the authors gained rare access to, and support from a government-backed social cash organization in Pakistan (an understudied country in the Global South), which made the data and the consequent analyses even invaluable. This made the empirical contribution within this geographical setting even more worthy, since this case study has received little attention from indigenous scholars in the past. The empirical findings showcased a unique set of contextual factors that were subject to BISP and interpreted through an account of socio-cultural sensitivities.

The paper provides practical implications for policymakers and practitioners, emphasizing the need to address institutional challenges, including covert power, during the implementation of digitalization projects in the public sector. The paper has certain potential for inspiring future e-government related (or public sector focused) studies. The paper may guide both private and government policy-makers and practitioners in presenting how to overcome certain institutional challenges while planning and implementing large scale multi-stakeholder digitization projects in similar country contexts. So while there is scope of linking the digitization of public sector organizations to anti-corruption measures in other Global South countries, the paper may not be that straightforward with the private sector involvement.

The paper offers rich social insights on the institutional interchanges that occur between the social actors for the innovation of technology. Especially, the paper highlights the social-embeddedness nature of technology that underpins the institutionalization of new organizational practices. These have implications on how DI is viewed as a socio-political process of change.

This study contributes to neo-institutional theory by theorizing covert power as a political force that complements the neo-institutional framework. This force is subtle but also resistive for some political actors as the force shifts the equilibrium of power between different institutional actors. Furthermore, the paper presents the social and practical implications that guide policymakers and practitioners by taking into consideration the unique institutional challenges, such as covert power, while implementing large scale digital projects in the social cash sector.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of cultural factors (concern for face and stability of attribution) in the relationships among service recovery quality, postrecovery satisfaction and repurchase intention. Based on the politeness theory, this paper proposes a theoretical model for understanding how concern for face and stability of attribution may affect collectivists’ consumption behavior.

Data were collected in a field survey of 600 Hong Kong consumers who had experienced a telecommunications service failure. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the theoretical hypotheses.

A cultural factor of concern for face is found to negatively moderate the relationship between service recovery quality and postrecovery satisfaction. Face also positively influences the relationship between postrecovery satisfaction and repurchase intention. Another cultural factor, stability of attribution, is found to negatively moderate the relationship between service recovery quality and postrecovery satisfaction and to negatively moderate the relationship between postrecovery satisfaction and repurchase intention.

This study contributes to the understanding of the relevance of concern for face and stability of attribution in collectivists’ consumption behavior. The findings have significant implications for managers in a position to exploit the cultural value mechanisms of collectivist consumers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this has been the first research to examine the impact of concern for face and stability of attribution among service recovery quality, postrecovery satisfaction and repurchase intention.

Social movements are not monolithic entities. Activists and organizations disagree about the goals of the movement and the tactics to achieve these goals, including their framing tactics. Cultural sociologists have questioned the idea that tactical choice is rationally and strategically oriented, arguing that tactics are morally and emotionally grounded in the activists' lives. We follow this insight, though suggesting that activists make constant efforts to experience their action as rational, claiming a strategic status and a sense of efficacy for their lines of action. By studying framing resonance disputes in interactions between animal rights activists and mass media in south Brazil, we found that, to make their tactics accountable and justifiable, activists mobilize different folk theories on social transformation which allow their actions to be experienced as the best means to achieve the movement's ends.

To increase university–industry collaboration and research commercialisation, the Australian government recently introduced the Intellectual Property (IP) Framework, a set of online standard contracts. This follows a predecessor standard contract initiative, the IP Toolkit, which has not previously been evaluated. This paper aims to examine standard contracting in the innovation sector, tracing the policymaking behind the IP Toolkit using the lens of Macneil’s relational contract theory, to assess prospects of success for the new IP Framework, and similar initiatives in other jurisdictions.

This is a disciplined-configurative case study, drawing on qualitative secondary data analysis and applying Macneil’s relational contracting theory to guide case construction and generate hypotheses around likely success of standard contracting initiatives (stakeholder sentiment, stakeholder adoption). Within-case analysis process-traces development of the IP Toolkit, to discover what the policymakers wanted, knew and computed – and to detail observable implications Macneil’s theory predicts. Its themes are triangulated with multiple sources.

The case study, via Macneil’s theory, confirms the first hypothesis (resistant stakeholder sentiment) and partly validates the second hypothesis (low levels of adoption), demonstrating limited suitability of standard contracting in the dynamic and highly uncertain space of university–industry collaboration.

The study provides insights into the limited role that standard contracts can play in improving national collaborative research and development performance.

This is a novel theory-driven case study triangulated with previously unpublished data on the IP Toolkit’s website usage, and data from recent consultations on the new IP Framework. It has broader implications for other jurisdictions considering adoption of the standard contract model.

This study aims to examine how women entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan's male-dominated sectors utilize the concept of positionality to navigate and redefine gender norms, focusing on their engagement with entrepreneurial masculinities and femininities. It explores the transformative potential of their strategic actions on gender dynamics within the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Employing qualitative research through 27 in-depth interviews, this study adopts constructivist grounded theory to delve into how women entrepreneurs interact with gender norms within their entrepreneurial context. This approach highlights the dynamic interplay between gender norms and the strategies employed by women entrepreneurs to navigate these challenges.

The findings reveal that women entrepreneurs actively employ and navigate entrepreneurial masculinities and femininities as strategies to challenge traditional gender roles. Their approaches vary from conforming to, challenging and creatively redefining the gendered expectations encountered in their entrepreneurial journey. This demonstrates their agency in reshaping gender norms and contributing to the diversity of gender performances within the domain of entrepreneurship.

While focused on Kazakhstan, the study's findings suggest broader implications for understanding gender dynamics in entrepreneurship across different cultural contexts. Future research could extend this inquiry to varied sociocultural settings, employing post-structuralist and ethnographic methodologies to further explore the performance of gender roles and the negotiation of belonging in entrepreneurial contexts.

By foregrounding the concept of positionality, this study enriches the dialogue on gender dynamics within entrepreneurship, offering fresh perspectives on the agency of women entrepreneurs in male-dominated sectors. It illustrates how gender identities and performances are not fixed but are actively constructed and negotiated, contributing to the evolving landscape of entrepreneurial masculinities and femininities.

This paper aims to investigate the difference between the impacts of indicators of trade barriers (TBs) on bankrupt enterprises (BEs), new enterprises (NEs) and other enterprises (OEs).

The paper has used a multiple-step approach. At the first stage, the initial data has been collected from interviews with 164 top managers of SMEs in West Azerbaijan in Iran during two periods of 2013–2015 and 2017–2019. At the second step, multiple correspondence analysis has been used to summarize the relationships between variables and construct indices for different groups of TBs. Finally, the generalized structural equation model method was used to examine the impact of export barriers.

The results showed that the political legal index is the main TBs for BEs and NEs, but it had a more significant impact on BEs; the financial index was the second major TBs factor for BEs, while OEs did not have a problem in performance index, and the financial index was classified as a minor obstacle for them. All indicators of marketing barriers (except production index) had a negative and significant effect on all enterprises; the most important TBs for NEs was the information index.

The results indicated that if enterprises have a strong financial system and function, they can lessen the impact of sanctions and keep themselves in the market.